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Book Chapters

Browse more than 5,500 book chapters authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.

Filter Total Items: 6071

The northern pike, a prized native but disastrous invasive: Chapter 14

As the chapters in this book describe, the northern pike Esox lucius Linneaus, 1758 is a fascinating fish that plays an important ecological role in structuring aquatic communities (chapter 8), has the capacity to aid lake restoration efforts (chapter 11), and contributes substantially to local economies, both as a highlysought after sport fish (chapter 12) and as a commercial fishing resource (ch
Authors
David Rutz, Robert L. Massengill, Adam J. Sepulveda, Kristine J. Dunker

Geomorphic response of the Muddy River Basin to the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, 1980–2000

The 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced a mosaic of primary landscape disturbances that decreased in intensity with distance from the volcano across the headwaters of Muddy River and its tributaries. Subsequent geomorphic responses were influenced by evolving hillslope and channel conditions that affected fluxes of water, sediment, and wood, as well as by an exceptional storm in Febr
Authors
Thomas E. Lisle, Jon J. Major, J. H. Hardison

The use of remote camera trapping to study cheetahs

Remote camera trapping is an efficient noninvasive technique for monitoring rare and elusive species, such as cheetahs. The unique pelage pattern of cheetahs allows for identification of individuals from photographs, providing detection histories that are naturally suited for abundance estimation using capture–recapture methods. Furthermore, the spatial location of photographic detections allows f
Authors
Ezequiel Fabiano, Lorraine Boast, Angela K. Fuller, Chris Sutherland

Extreme-event geoelectric hazard maps: Chapter 9

Maps of geoelectric amplitude covering about half the continental United States are presented that will be exceeded, on average, once per century in response to an extreme-intensity geomagnetic disturbance. These maps are constructed using an empirical parameterization of induction: convolving latitude-dependent statistical maps of extreme-value geomagnetic disturbances, obtained from decades of 1
Authors
Jeffrey J. Love, Paul A. Bedrosian

Preface: The wetland book, I: Structure and function, management, and methods

The Wetland Book is a hard copy and online production that provides an unparalleled collation of information on wetlands. It is global in scope and contains 462 chapters prepared by leading wetland researchers and managers. The wide disciplinary and geographic scope is a unique feature and differentiates The Wetland Book from the existing wetland literature. The editors have compiled The Wetland B
Authors
C. Max Finlayson, Mark Everard, Kenneth Irvine, Robert J. McInnes, Beth A. Middleton, Anne A. Van Dam, Nick C. Davidson

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

No abstract available.
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos

Explosive eruptions at the summit of Mauna Loa: Lithology, modeling, and dating

Near Moku‘āweoweo, Mauna Loa’s summit caldera, there are three fans of explosive deposits. The fans, located to the west, northwest, and east, are strongly arcuate in map view. Along ‘Āinapō Trail, 2.8–3.5 km southeast of the caldera, there are several small kīpuka that expose a fourth explosive deposit. Although these explosive deposits have been known for some time, no study bearing on the natur
Authors
Frank A. Trusdell, Jefferson Hungerford, John Stone, Keith Fifield, Kaitlin McCann, Harold Wershow, Shikma Zaarur, Melissa Dimeo Boyd

Groundwater modeling

The state of the science and practice in groundwater modeling brings to mind highly sophisticated computer models that are running in parallel on many multi-processor machines. These models are expected to incorporate many different processes of both saturated and unsaturated groundwater flow and transport and possibly the media to which it connects, like surface waters and the atmosphere. We are
Authors
Henk M. Haitjema, Randall J. Hunt

Introduction to the Wetland Book 1: Wetland structure and function, management, and nethods

The Wetland Book 1 is designed as a ‘first port-of-call’ reference work for information on the structure and functions of wetlands, current approaches to wetland management, and methods for researching and understanding wetlands. Contributions by experts summarize key concepts, orient the reader to the major issues, and support further research on such issues by individuals and multidisciplinary t
Authors
Nick C. Davidson, Beth A. Middleton, Robert J. McInnes, Mark Everard, Kenneth Irvine, Anne A. Van Dam, C. Max Finlayson

Lake trout spawning and habitat assessment at Stony Island Reef

Lake trout stocking began in the 1970s as part of a binational effort to restore a self-sustaining population of lake trout in Lake Ontario. Despite 48 years of restoration stocking, lake trout in Lake Ontario have not reestablished a self-sustaining population. Spawning surveys done at Stony Island Reef (SIR) in eastern Lake Ontario in 1987 and 1989 documented lake trout egg deposition and swim-u
Authors
Stacy Furgal, Brian F. Lantry, Brian C. Weidel, John M. Farrell, Dimitry Gorsky, Zy Biesinger

Life history with emphasis on geographic variation

Every organism is defined by a set of vital rates that evolve to enhance lifetime reproductive fitness and survival of individuals and their progeny. These traits vary due to the complex but sometimes predictable interactions between individuals, populations and their environments. Collectively, these attributes are referred to as life history traits and include age and size of maturity, longevity
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Kathryn Greene

Secular changes in Cenozoic arc magmatism recorded by trends in forearc-basin sandstone composition, Cook Inlet, southern Alaska

A robust set of modal composition data (238 samples) for Eocene to Pliocene sandstone from the Cook Inlet forearc basin of southern Alaska reveals strong temporal trends in composition, particularly in the abundance of volcanic lithic grains. Field and petrographic point-count data from the northwestern side of the basin indicate that the middle Eocene West Foreland Formation was strongly influenc
Authors
Kenneth P. Helmold, Marwan A. Wartes, Robert J. Gillis, David L. LePain, Trystan M. Herriott, Richard G. Stanley, Michael D. Wilson